Anime in review

Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai Episode 7

Yep. I’m pretty sure this is the only legitimate way to use a cellphone’s built in camera feature. Besides taking snapshots to show everyone how much more expensive and tasty your lunch was than ours, of course.

Night Call

Summer is here and the heat is on, causing Kobato to think twice about joining her brother for any kind of outing, Neighbors Club or no. At school, Kodaka finds the other club members are equally restless with irregular turnouts and Yukimura as the only constant, fastidiously attending to his duty as his underling. On a certain rainy day, Kodaka shows up alone with only Yukimura in his company; the next day he raises the issue of finding a way to find out if and when others will be coming to club meetings. Rika finally suggests simply using their cell phones to keep in touch, and the members begin trading contact information.

Sena, however, doesn’t have a phone of her own, and feels so left out she can only sit in front of blank TV pretending to play video games while Kodaka and Yozora manually enter their information. The concept of receiving SMS messages causes them both to exult in rapture. When Kodaka asks Sena for her contact information, Yozora takes advantage of the situation to further alienate her by making a call to Kodaka’s phone, mocking her in an obvious ruse. Again humiliated by Yozora’s constant abuse, Sena (surprise) leaves the room in tears.

“I’m giving you a night call to tell you how I feel…”

At night, Kodaka is jolted awake by a call from Sena who demands to know the make and model of his cell phone and sure enough shows up with a matching model the next day. She returns to the clubroom, triumphantly showing off her new phone to an indifferent Yozora, who summarily expels her from the room with her customary abuse. In an attempt to dole out some payback, Sena texts Kodaka for Yozora’s phone number. The plan backfires, however, when Yozora preempts Sena and pranks her with an onslaught of infinite spam messages, causing her to run back to the clubroom for Kodaka’s assistance. Visibly offended, Yozora abruptly leaves.

Look on my cellphone, ye mighty, and despair!

Bad Connection

How come these guys waited until episode 7 before they even entertained the thought of trading contact info? It’s funny how Kodaka and Yozora bemoan their lack of tech savvy when the huge gap in know-how becomes apparent between them and their kohai, but why are they altogether behaving like they’re complete modern day luddites?

Given, the whole series is founded on the premise of social ineptitude but it’s still kind of pushing it for both Yozora and Kodaka to marvel at the wonders of what is by all accounts surely standard for current cellphone technology specifications. These are adolescents we’re talking about after all, and Japanese adolescents to boot: teens from a nation that excels at, indeed thrives on, creating gadgets and devices for what often seems the most superfluous, impractical applications imaginable.

Yozora, Yozora. Simply incorrigible. She just doesn’t seem to know how to play nice with Sena, whom she obviously sees as a rival for Kodaka’s attention. He still has that courtesy visit to pay to Sena’s father too, which has the potential to become a source of much misunderstanding while caught between two very difficult personalities. Ganbare yo, shounen.